Core Python Programming

Definitely worth 5 stars. The book clearly explains its purpose, and the author makes his methodologies known in the beginning as to how he will approach teaching the language. His explanations are clear and concise, and it does not contradict the DOCS available on the Python web site. He's both humorous and informative, with a relaxed style of writing.The code in itself is neatly organized, clearly explained, and overall, it works. He does cover a lot of Python basics, the majority of the book are Python basics. He also covers advanced topics such as network programming, extending Python through C/C++ modules, and multithreading. All of which are important, being able to write distributed applications, writing responsive programs, and being able to extend the language are all equally important. Python's power is clearly explained and logically thought-out in this book. I would recommend it to anyone who wants to learn Python but are new to programming.As a side note, I would also take extra time and check out the DOCS themselves. The author is good, but by no means perfect, supplement the book with the DOCS, it'll help you out a lot more. I have plans on writing more complicated web services using Python, and this book will remain beside me as both a reference and a guide when I'm lost.

I have been programming in Python for a couple of years. "Core" has been on my bookshelf, but I didn't consult it much until I wanted to learn CGI ("Web") programming, and thought I would see what I could find in it.It was a revelation! The explanations of basic concepts are very clear, yet short and to the point, and cover all of the basic information. As one example, the explanation of client-server architecture in the chapter on network programming really gives you the basic concepts. I am extremely impressed.So I think this book would be a very good choice for someone in the beginner to intermediate range. In my case, I'm in the intermediate category for some topics, but for some topics I am a complete beginner. So this book was just what I needed. The explanations are so clear and well-written that it is easy to give "Core" 5 stars. I suggest that you ignore the reviews that complain about the big type. The big type makes the book a pleasure to read: as one reviewer said, you can just sit down and read this book, even if you're not in front of your computer. The only disadvantage to the big type is that it might give a prospective buyer the impression that this book is not as solid as it really is.

For the last few months I was developing in Perl. But I found myself very frustrated with the syntax, and the Perl books on the market did a so-so job on explaining how everything worked.And then I came across this book. I had read a review about in the Linux Journal. In 2 days I "inhaled" 200+ pages of this book, about 7 chapters. To begin with, this book is easy to understand, has numerous examples to go long with the text, and does an excellent job in progessing through Python. The first 400 pages cover syntax, style, functions, classes, modules, etc. If you've ever programmed in another language (C, C++, Java, Perl), Mr. Chun compares Python to each of them in simularities and differences. You should be pick up on these quite easily. The last part of the book in more advanced topics, which I found quite enjoyable. I don't program in Perl anymore. After reading this book, I wonder why I didn't look at Python first. Aside from a book on Tkinter, this is the only book that I keep on my desk. It's great for teaching and learning, but makes a great reference book also.

This book is an excellent read for someone new to python but with some other programming knowledge. This was my first exposure to Python (coming from Perl) and I found this book very helpful. The author explains things very thoroughly and intuitively. He writes a lot of prose and not just all code examples, but good explanations also. I found myself reading this most times without a computer in front of me. So by the time I actually sat down and dug into the syntax, I was already very familiar with the basic concepts of the language. It touches on most subjects I was looking for. It may not be for the extreme beginner or as the end-all reference for gurus, but for us in between its just whats needed. this is easily one of the better programming books I've read.

If you do not know python or have only immediate knowledge then get this book. it explains all the python concepts in a clear and easy to follow way. I think it is much better than "Learning Python" from Oreilly or the ugly "Python in 24 hours". If you want to learn python, you should consider buying this book. Besides Addison-Wesleys Book "Programming Ruby - A pragmatic programmers guide", this is one of the best introductions to a language I have come across.